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Parking machine fraud in Richmond

05 February 2021

Richmond Council has received several reports of parking machine bank fraud in which criminals are pretending there is a problem with the parking machine and swallow drivers’ cards before they can be removed from the machine. 

Councillor Alexander Ehmann, Chair of the Transport and Air Quality Committee for Richmond Council has urged drivers to take extra care when using parking machines, and those who believe they may have been scammed to contact their bank immediately.

Councillor Alexander Ehmann said, “Until the criminals are caught please take extra care to be on guard against scammers and tell your friends and family, who might not have seen this warning message, to be careful too.

“We will be working with local police Safer Neighbourhoods Teams to put a stop to these crimes.

“In the meantime, please try to use contactless payments or cash at parking machines or use RingGo.

“If you think you might have fallen victim to this scam, contact your bank immediately to cancel your bank card.”

Peter O’ Driscoll, Managing Director of RingGo told Express.co.uk that the latest scam may push more drivers towards using “cashless parking” in the area and that paying through an app reduced the risk of card details being stolen by criminals. He said, “The evolving story of parking machine scammers targeting drivers in Richmond adds yet another point to ongoing discussions around the future of parking machines.

“The fact that you have to present your physical card at machines is being taken advantage of.

“But there is a simple way to counteract this type of scam – a cashless parking app, which is something many of us are already used to.

“Using an app means you don’t have to get your card out, instead you can simply pay via a secure, encrypted service.”

We at Marshall Leasing trust that you find this information useful. To find out more about our fleet management services, please contact us on01480 414541 or email info@marshall-leasing.co.uk.

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